• Four Davenport firefighters headed this past weekend to Deerfield Beach, Florida, to compete in the National Firefighters Combat Challenge. Darrel McKittrick, Gary Crookshanks, Ron Burchette, and Jim VanVlymen have competed in two challenges this year with times so good they have qualified for nationals twice. The challenge is an intense competition designed to provide the public with a greater appreciation and understanding of the tremendous physical demands of firefighting. Wearing "full bunker gear" and breathing apparatus, firefighters simulate real-life firefighting by competing against the clock on a linked series of five tasks. You can see how the local team did on the Challenge Web site at (http://www.firefighter-challenge.com).
• On the first Monday of each month, counselors from the Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) will be available at Iowa Social Security offices to answer Medicare and health-insurance questions. SHIIP counselors answer questions related to Medicare benefits, Medicare-supplement insurance, long-term-care insurance, retiree plans, claims, Medicaid, and other health insurance sold to people with Medicare. They do not sell insurance or recommend policies, agents, or companies. The service is free. For more information or to request copies of SHIIP consumer guides, call (800)351-4664 or visit SHIIP's Web site at (http://www.shiip.state.ia.us/).
• River Action needs nominations for the Annual Eddy Awards, recognizing outstanding candidates in the categories of education, design, river activity, arts stewardship, and revitalization. The nomination deadline is February 22. For a nomination form or more information about qualifications, call the River Action office at (563)322-2969.
• According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's recently released annual Uniform Crime Report, police arrested an estimated 723,627 persons for marijuana violations in 2001. The total is the second highest ever recorded by the FBI and comprises nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States. Of those charged with marijuana violations, 88.6 percent - some 641,108 Americans - were charged with possession only. The remaining 82,518 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses - even those in which the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. The total number of marijuana arrests far exceeds the combined number of arrests for all violent crimes. Since 1992, approximately 6 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, a greater number than the combined populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. Annual marijuana arrests have nearly doubled in that time. For more information, take a look at the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) Web site, most particularly the "talking points" on marijuana arrest and incarceration rates at (http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3381).
• Iowa East Central TRAIN in Davenport is being awarded $1.7 million to fund its Head Start full-year, part-day, and handicapped programs. More than 7,000 Iowa children are served by the Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Iowa East Central TRAIN provides low-income children with education and health-care services. Head Start serves children up to the age of five, pregnant women, and their families. The programs focus on enhancing school readiness for children in low-income families.
• All of us hate e-mail spam. A special Web site at (http://www.e-mps.org) has been created where consumers and businesses can register their e-mail addresses with he Direct Marketing Association's e-mail Preference Service. Direct-marketing associations in eight other countries have also agreed to use this service. The service will delete the Internet address of those individuals who do not want to receive e-mail solicitations.
• The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported October 11 that the U.S. Army had registered a patent on a substance that blocks brain damage from nerve gases such as Sarin, Soman, and Tabun. The substance, HU-211, is also known as dexabinol, described by the Israeli Green Leaf Party (http://www.ale-yarok.org.il), a marijuana-reform group based in Tel Aviv, as a "mirror for THC except for psychoactive effect." Dexabinol was developed by Professor Rafael Meshoulam at the School of Pharmacology in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an Israeli company, Pharmos Limited, holds an exclusive worldwide license on the substance. (A patent fight with the U.S. Army is now underway.) According to Maariv, in an experiment conducted by the U.S. Army, HU-211 was found to reduce brain damage caused by convulsions brought on by nerve-gas exposure. In rats injected five minutes after exposure, damage was reduced by 86 percent, and even in rats injected 40 minutes after exposure, damage was reduced by 81 percent. Visit the National Institutes of Health's Medline at (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi) and type in "HU-211" and "Soman" to view the latest research on dexabinol's effect on nerve-gas damage.
• Work on the ramp to connect the Davenport bike trail with an improved Arsenal Bridge crossing began on September 23 in Davenport. The promenade in front of Fort Armstrong and riverway art The Gathering Point will be widened. Plans also call for a cantilevered bike path along the Sylvan Slough Bridge to Rock Island. The design was done as part of River Action's Riverway 2000 Program, while construction is part of the federal TEA 21 Enhancement Program. Congress will consider the next authorization package in 2003, and it's hoped that an enhancement program will be included in that transportation funding as well.
• The Iowa Donor Network (IDN) is a not-for-profit organization that operates as the primary contact for organ-, tissue-, and eye-donation services for the state of Iowa. The Iowa Donor Network is dedicated to maximizing the recovery of transplantable organs and tissues by serving donor families, potential donors, and candidates for transplantation. The Iowa Donor Registry can be accessed at (http://www.IowaDonorRegistry.com) or by calling (877)366-6742.
• On the first Monday of each month, counselors from the Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) will be available at Iowa Social Security offices to answer Medicare and health-insurance questions. SHIIP counselors answer questions related to Medicare benefits, Medicare-supplement insurance, long-term-care insurance, retiree plans, claims, Medicaid, and other health insurance sold to people with Medicare. They do not sell insurance or recommend policies, agents, or companies. The service is free. For more information or to request copies of SHIIP consumer guides, call (800)351-4664 or visit SHIIP's Web site at (http://www.shiip.state.ia.us/).
• River Action needs nominations for the Annual Eddy Awards, recognizing outstanding candidates in the categories of education, design, river activity, arts stewardship, and revitalization. The nomination deadline is February 22. For a nomination form or more information about qualifications, call the River Action office at (563)322-2969.
• According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's recently released annual Uniform Crime Report, police arrested an estimated 723,627 persons for marijuana violations in 2001. The total is the second highest ever recorded by the FBI and comprises nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States. Of those charged with marijuana violations, 88.6 percent - some 641,108 Americans - were charged with possession only. The remaining 82,518 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses - even those in which the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. The total number of marijuana arrests far exceeds the combined number of arrests for all violent crimes. Since 1992, approximately 6 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, a greater number than the combined populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming. Annual marijuana arrests have nearly doubled in that time. For more information, take a look at the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) Web site, most particularly the "talking points" on marijuana arrest and incarceration rates at (http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3381).
• Iowa East Central TRAIN in Davenport is being awarded $1.7 million to fund its Head Start full-year, part-day, and handicapped programs. More than 7,000 Iowa children are served by the Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Iowa East Central TRAIN provides low-income children with education and health-care services. Head Start serves children up to the age of five, pregnant women, and their families. The programs focus on enhancing school readiness for children in low-income families.
• All of us hate e-mail spam. A special Web site at (http://www.e-mps.org) has been created where consumers and businesses can register their e-mail addresses with he Direct Marketing Association's e-mail Preference Service. Direct-marketing associations in eight other countries have also agreed to use this service. The service will delete the Internet address of those individuals who do not want to receive e-mail solicitations.
• The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported October 11 that the U.S. Army had registered a patent on a substance that blocks brain damage from nerve gases such as Sarin, Soman, and Tabun. The substance, HU-211, is also known as dexabinol, described by the Israeli Green Leaf Party (http://www.ale-yarok.org.il), a marijuana-reform group based in Tel Aviv, as a "mirror for THC except for psychoactive effect." Dexabinol was developed by Professor Rafael Meshoulam at the School of Pharmacology in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and an Israeli company, Pharmos Limited, holds an exclusive worldwide license on the substance. (A patent fight with the U.S. Army is now underway.) According to Maariv, in an experiment conducted by the U.S. Army, HU-211 was found to reduce brain damage caused by convulsions brought on by nerve-gas exposure. In rats injected five minutes after exposure, damage was reduced by 86 percent, and even in rats injected 40 minutes after exposure, damage was reduced by 81 percent. Visit the National Institutes of Health's Medline at (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi) and type in "HU-211" and "Soman" to view the latest research on dexabinol's effect on nerve-gas damage.
• Work on the ramp to connect the Davenport bike trail with an improved Arsenal Bridge crossing began on September 23 in Davenport. The promenade in front of Fort Armstrong and riverway art The Gathering Point will be widened. Plans also call for a cantilevered bike path along the Sylvan Slough Bridge to Rock Island. The design was done as part of River Action's Riverway 2000 Program, while construction is part of the federal TEA 21 Enhancement Program. Congress will consider the next authorization package in 2003, and it's hoped that an enhancement program will be included in that transportation funding as well.
• The Iowa Donor Network (IDN) is a not-for-profit organization that operates as the primary contact for organ-, tissue-, and eye-donation services for the state of Iowa. The Iowa Donor Network is dedicated to maximizing the recovery of transplantable organs and tissues by serving donor families, potential donors, and candidates for transplantation. The Iowa Donor Registry can be accessed at (http://www.IowaDonorRegistry.com) or by calling (877)366-6742.
